Political Punch

Dave in lv,

You are incorrect on Paulson. He is a Republican appointed by Bush. Wikipedia says so. He caused this mess! America may be in denial over this, but the world market will not be so kind.

Obama/Biden 08!

James Danley

'credit default swaps' were used as a type of 'insurance' for exotic mortgage packages, financial instruments, they were sold to the buyers as a hedge....but.. without the capital reserves that government insurance demands....

the real cause is knowingly playing fast and loose with financial instruments without capital reserves to back them up.

Knowledgeable Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) sources that the Bush administration is putting the final touches on a plan that would see martial law declared in the United States with various scenarios anticipated as triggers. The triggers include a continuing economic collapse with massive social unrest, bank closures resulting in violence against financial institutions, and another fraudulent presidential election that would result in rioting in major cities and campuses around the country.

In addition, Army Corps of Engineer sources report that the assignment of the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team (BCT) to the Northern Command’s U.S. Army North is to augment FEMA and federal law enforcement in the imposition of traffic controls, crowd control, curfews, enhanced border and port security, and neighborhood patrols in the event a national emergency being declared. The BCT was assigned to duties in Iraq before being assigned to the Northern Command.

I have not seen any evidence George Bush struck down Posse Comitatus.

Please provide some news source backing your statement.

If this is true and Rep. Sherman is not delusional, I ask you to consider that if they are willing to threaten martial law now, it is foolish to assume they will never use that threat again. It is also foolish to trust in an orderly election process to resolve this threat. And why deploy the First Brigade? One thing the deployment accomplishes is to put teeth into such a threat.

George Bush struck down Posse Comitatus, thus making it legal for military to patrol the U.S. He has also legally established that in the "War on Terror," the U.S. is at war around the globe and thus the whole world is a battlefield. Thus the U.S. is also a battlefield.
He also led change to the 1807 Insurrection Act to give him far broader powers in the event of a loosely defined "insurrection" or many other "conditions" he has the power to identify. The Constitution allows the suspension of habeas corpus -- habeas corpus prevents us from being seized by the state and held without trial -- in the event of an "insurrection." With his own army force now, his power to call a group of protesters or angry voters "insurgents" staging an "insurrection" is strengthened.

Bud, the cause of the current financial crisis was not deregulation, but rather too much governmental interference with the free market, greed and a lack of Congressional oversight.

It was under the Clinton Administration that the real push was made to force mortgage institutions (under threat of hefty fines) into lowering their lending standards and giving loans to individuals who could not afford to make the payments. This caused the skyrocketing rise in the values of homes, which set into motion the downturn in the housing market (simple Economics 101: prices rise, consumers stop buying, prices drop and consumers begin buying again).

The pushing of subprime mortgages with flexible rates was seen as a get rich quick scheme by greedy lenders. And lenders did reap hundreds of millions of dollars.

And then it was the Democrats in the Senate that blocked the Bush Administration's attempts to implement stricter oversight by Congress.

Now then, it was announced this morning that pending sales of existing U. S. homes ROSE 7.9% in August. Had there not been the push for flexible mortgage rates, the housing market would be on its way back. BUT instead, what should have been a very simple cyclical effect, has turned into a huge financial crisis because too many homeowners defaulted on their greatly inflated mortgage payments (which they wouldn't have done with fixed mortage rates, as the banks would have been forced to just ride out the market instead of raising the mortgage interest rates).

I would like for anyone who supports Obama's tax plan to consider my situation and give me their feedback. I am trying to understand the fairness of it all.

One of the worst things that would happen for me if Obama were president and he implemented his tax plan is I would have to layoff half of my employees at my grocery store. Regardless of how I file my income is more than $250,000 but after putting money back into the business it would not be worth staying in business under Obama’s tax plan. Now explain how that is fair to people like me and the people I employ.

Interesting to see almost zero comment or interest on Jake's original topic - the massive drop in Asia.

To Update:

-The Nikkei(Japan) lost 9.38%
-Hang Seng (Hong Kong) lost 8.17%
-Singapore lost 6.61%
-Indonesia's market lost 10.38% (after dropping 10% on Monday)
-China's Shanghai index only lost 3.04% (but has been down over 50% since January).

Ironically, many of these countries are still in good shape trade wise because intra-Asian trade has grown in importance and size compared to export growth to the U.S.

Mainly it seems like investor confidence has been shattered and people are shifting to cash and gold. U.S. funds are also likely pulling out of overseas markets so they can have cash on hand to cover fund redemptions from U.S. customers. So that just adds to the contagion.

But mainly it's other smaller countries that are really screwed, like Iceland (which is teetering on bankruptcy) that seems to have imitated both the lax regulations of the U.S. AND also repeated the mistakes of the Asian '97 Crisis of borrowing too much in overseas currencies.

So, say hello to global recession folks.

And say a big thank you to our Chief Clueless in Command - GW Bush and the pro-deregulators in Congress (which have been mainly Republicans, given that 12 years of the last 14 Congress was in Republican control).

Heckuva job!

I must admit I was completely lukewarm on both the main Democratic front-runners during the primaries. But seeing the recent performances of both McCain and Obama in the last few weeks it is very reassuring that Obama is at least showing the calm and offering the kind of reassurances and confidence that I think we all look for in a president.

And thank goodness it seems that most Americans feel that same way too, because I would hate to have to place the fate of the global economy on John McCain's naval gazing (or, even worse, the continued good health of that gut and all his other internal organs).

New York Times Condemns McCain

The New York Times has a new editorial today lambasting what has become of the McCain campaign. "They have gone far beyond the usual fare of quotes taken out of context and distortions of an opponent's record -- into the dark territory of race-baiting and xenophobia," the Times says. "Senator Barack Obama has taken some cheap shots at Mr. McCain, but there is no comparison."

Lawmaker's son, UT student David Kernell, indicted in Palin e-mail hacking.
David Kernell, the son of liberal Tennessee State Representative Mike Kernell was indicted this morning.

David C. Kernell, 20, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Knoxville, Tennessee., for intentionally accessing without authorization the e-mail account of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

Kernell is a member of the UT for Barack Obama organization.

mccain's honor wrote: "It's the vilest campaign since Rove smeared McCain in South Carolina in 2000."

I guess you never saw the 2000 NAACP campaign ad where they showed a black man chained to the back of a pickup being dragged, and giving the impression that the driver was George W. Bush. I also guess you never heard the 2000 Democratic compaign radio ads saying a vote for Republicans is a vote for more black churches being burned.

Jake has no comment on the indictment of Obama blogger and email hacker Kernell?

Why are there so many racist in this country? Don't you know that to question Obama is to be a racist? When are people going to learn that Obama's election to POTUS will end all racism?

Andrew Sullivan: Death Spasms? Packer weighs in on McCain invoking Ayers:

Other than rousing the uglier impulses of the Republican base, I don’t think the Kristol Plan is going to make much difference. It’s the wrong year. Like Palin herself, the use of Ayers is a sign of ill-health in the Republican Party and a symptom of an ideology in an advanced state of decay. The smarter conservatives, like Frum and Douthat, know this.

All I do know is that if McCain wins after these tactics, he will be unable to govern. The GOP base will want Palin as president and retrench to their natural anti-McCain posture, especially on immigration and the environment; and the Democrats in Congress will never forgive this despicable and dishonorable campaign. Nor should they. It's the vilest campaign since Rove smeared McCain in South Carolina in 2000.

Someone Tell the Pitbull

I wonder if McCain and his venomous sidekick will read this in their paper this morning:

An investigation by the military has concluded that American airstrikes on Aug. 22 in a village in western Afghanistan killed far more civilians than American commanders there have acknowledged, according to two American military officials. The military investigator’s report found that more than 30 civilians — not 5 to 7 as the military has long insisted — died in the airstrikes against a suspected Taliban compound in Azizabad.

The investigator, Brig. Gen. Michael W. Callan of the Air Force, concluded that many more civilians, including women and children, had been buried in the rubble than the military had asserted, one of the military officials said.

Spot on James. No executive could operate successfully in an environment where he is daily vilified. Dumb, chimpy, betrayed his country, attack, attack, and the hamstring of every effort to improve the country, coupled with the republican desire to feed from the trough not only brought a President down but was pushed past limits and has brought the financial markets down.

A pox on the house and senate, along with all of the political operatives that cannot see beyond their candidate, to the greatness of our country.

Dave in lv wrote: "We didn't have a failure of regulations. We had a failure of Dems to do the job they volunteered and fought for."

I am now wondering if it wasn't a "failure" of the Democrats, but rather a "complete success" of the Democrats. I wonder if they intentionally ignored all of the warnings; intentionally pushed these subprime mortgages with flexible rates onto low income families, knowing that these homeowners wouldn't be able to afford the skyrocketing payments when the next downturn in the housing market would hit. I wonder if they KNEW that is would cause a collapse of the financial institutions, turning the American economy into a tailspin.

Sen. Obama said last night that President Bush "missed an opportunity" just after 9/11. Maybe the Democrats created an opportunity to unite the American people into a rage against Corporate America so that not only will the people vote Democratic this fall, but also approve of the Democratic agenda of nationalizing health care and maybe even nationalizing the oil industry?

Hmmm! I wonder!

Healthcare is not likely to get addressed in the next administration anyway. Why is that? Because there’s no money. I like that Obama criticizes John McCain is putting the horse before the cart by trying to solve the economic crisis at it’s roots. Solving the mortgage crisis is an essential but currently missing portion of digging ourselves out of the financial meltdown that is going to ruin our economy. Obama barely mentioned it in passing and I don't blame him. He is smart not to be accountable for anything he says during the election. Once he gets in the racist will use it to try to tear him down and I don't want that. There are so many racist in America it makes my skin crawl. How can a racist not like obama? He is so articulate for a black person.

johnTX wrote: "I wonder if anyone will mention that one. I mean, it is a nearly communist plan."

Actually it is Sen. Obama's economic and health care plans that are closer to being communistic. Sen. Obama advocates wealth redistribution and then nationalizing our health care system. Sen. Obama has also implied at least a partial nationalization of Corporate America.

Now as for Sen. McCain's new recovery plan, as I understand it, he wants the Treasury Department to purchase the bad home loan mortgages and then RENEGOTIATE WITH THE HOMEOWNER a new mortgage based on the current diminshed value of the homes. That will allow the homeowners to keep their homes and also have a much lower principal with a FIXED mortgage rate.

As for the $300 billion cost, Congress has already approved a $700 billion rescue package. The Treasury Department can use some of THAT money to purchase some of the mortgages instead of purchasing the homes and reselling the homes.

The markets are mirroring the polls. As Obama's numbers go up, the market numbers go down. This reflects the widespread knowledge of the markets that when small businesses are burdened with excessive social engineering taxes, the profitability vanishes and the layoffs begin.

Obama is a failure in the making.

Obama simply can not miss. I don't care
about being subjected to that incoherent rambling style that he has. Anyone who finds Obama's talk free of substance will declared racists from me for not appreciating the impact of his historic candidacy, the beauty of his mere presence on that stage.

Is the inference that as Obama grows in the polls and creeps closer to the Presidency world wide markets fall?

Obama's healthcare proposals are better than McCain’s because he is using Hillary Clinton's plan. So yeah Obama's plan is Hillary's and it is better because it was hers. He can't go wrong if he keeps using Hillary's stuff. I like that in him.

CLabs, you wrote:
"If he has the guts he should
- ditch Palin and the NeoCons.
- get Colin Powell and Michael Bloomberg on board"

As a lifelong Conservative Republican, I can tell you that your suggestion is absolutely wrong. No Republican can win the White House without the full support of the base. While the overwhelming majority of Republicans were already going to vote for Sen. McCain, the base was not energized. And it was still questionable as to whether the base would have eventually turned around following the convention to set the Republican grassroots apparatus into motion. At least that was the case until Sen. McCain selected Gov. Palin as his running mate. Now the Republican Party base is energized and the Republican grassroots apparatus is in full swing. There should be a great Republican turnout in November.

Now as for Gen. Colin Powell, he took himself out of the running very early on. And Michael Bloomberg is pro-choice. So neither is an option.

Considering all of the intangibles (i.e., President Bush's low approval rating; the American people's views on the War; the economic crisis; etc.,) it is really surprising that Sen. Obama isn't much further ahead in the polls. While most of the polls have Sen. Obama up by 6-9 points nationally, there are still three polls that have the race just 2-3 points apart. So Sen. McCain's campaign is nowhere near a disaster.

Obama still has the main characteristics that led me to support him. He didn’t drop dead during the debate, which means he still has a pulse. His **** didn’t drop off during the debate,which means it’s still attached. I don’t have any other real requirements, he can eat puppies onstage for all I care.

Obama leads in states with 248 Electoral College votes while McCain is ahead in states with 163 Electoral College votes. When “leaners” are included, it’s Obama 300, McCain 174.

Barack showed his ease and understanding of the plight of the American people and his dedication to the middle class and average Americans. He is geared toward them/us! He came across as serious about fixing our problems and bringing America up to 21st Century standards and getting rid of a lot of programs that just do not work anymore. He also showed his mindset toward dealing with other countries and how we are all in this together and we have to work together on a world scale to address our global and world problems.

McCain Camp cannot talk about the economy because their Economics are for the Rich, the well-off and the well connected!

If Obama does what he proposes on foreign policy, he will lead us into more wars than JM.

Obama proposes sending in "a few troops" to the Sudan to assist others in ending the civil war and genocide they have going on. Sudan has always said it would consider such US involvement an act of war and would do everything possible to defend itself. Both Russia and China will come to the aid of the Sudan government.

This is a Vietnam scenario all over again. Too few troops and not the will to decisively intervene.

Obama's policy on Pakistan has been said by many would lead to a much wider civil war there as well with a high probability we could lose a government allied with us and end up with a radical regime with nukes and terrorists who hate us.

Obama's policies are dangerous and naive.

It is amazing how Dems can call others as liars when the truth is being told.
for example:

"SOMALIA. McCain held up Somalia as an example of failed American foreign policy, saying “we ended up having to withdraw in humiliation.” McCain ignored the amendment he introduced in 1993 to cut off funding for troops in Somalia."

Is there anyone who doesn't believe we didn't leave in humiliation? Or that our policy was flawed and a failure?

Didn't Osama himself say this was an example of America being nothing more than a paper tiger and encouraged him to further attacks on the US?

Where is the lie in what was said?

Both in Lebanon and Somalia we put in too few troops to get the job done and we weren't willing to expend the resources necessary to back them up. JM was therefor against both operations and in both cases he was right.

Josh Marshall: One thing that occurs to me after taking some time to mull the exchange is this: where were McCain's new fisticuffs? Bill Ayers, Obama as a liar, terrorist, all the sludge we've seen over the last 72 hours? Yes, he was aggressive on policy. But that's what debates are about. But McCain didn't take any of the shenanigans from the campaign trail into this debate. Almost like he was unwilling to say any of it to Obama's face. Or at least that he knew he couldn't get away with it in front of a non-party-line audience.

Fellow Americans, we need to lobby our Congress to pass a law that forces the SEC and the Treasury to "engineer" a plan that helps WAMU and Lehman to emerge from bankruptcy -- without cancelling previously issued shares. They should also "engineer" plans to pull all those banks taken over the FDIC out of receivership.

Watching the debates... with all the promises and propositions made by both, we that pay taxes, work for our livings, are absolutely and totally screwed.

I got a grandpa who turned 80 two months ago, and who doesn't look and sound nearly as old as McCain did in last night's debate.

This stiff, angry and bitter old man should be America's FUTURE?

Come on.

We're starting to see a trend -

McCain loses EVERYTHING.

re Post by: Common Sense | Oct 8, 2008 6:00:51 AM

Did you know it would be very hard for Paulson to be the right wing bigot you describe since he is a Dem and also gives regular briefings and receives input from Obama?

But I do agree with you he is one Dem that should be thrown in jail for failure to do his job.

We agree Fannie and Freddie were the major source of the problem.

Note these companies were and are among the MOST heavily regulated companies in the country with regular hearings on operations held by both the House and the Senate.

Barney Frank, Dem, leader of the House committee has a lover at Fannie for many years and blocked virtually every reform he could that would limit their risk.

Chris Dodd, Dem, leader of the Senate committee regularly takes money as "contributions" from Fannie, Freddie and gets below market loans from Countrywide. He considered these as normal "perks" of the job for those he regulates. Dodd also did everything possible to block any reforms to limit risk.

Obama was the second largest recipient of "contributions" from Fannie and Freddie. He failed to even suggest any reforms were necessary other than a message sent to the Treasury saying we may have a sub-prime problem but gave no proposed solutions.

We didn't have a failure of regulations. We had a failure of Dems to do the job they volunteered and fought for.

As of today Fannie and Freddie are STILL buying loans with 3% down!!!!

I can't say whether Bernanke is doing a good job or not, but I can say that lowering the interest rates did not have the intended effect for most people seeking credit. The banking system is crooked to the core and that's why there were laws put in place. Unfortunately, the laws weren't enforced by Cox and Paulson played Cheney-style politics and cronism to the maximum.

Fannie and Freddie became a self-fulfilling prophecy of these right-wing bigots that spewed bias against minority home ownership (which has performed well). Paulson's and his former employer, Goldman Sachs, were the leaders of this band of thieves. That's the real reason Paulson let Lehman fail.

Fuld asked the obvious question. Why was Lehman the ONLY one allowed to fail? This is what caused the systemic turmoil in the markets both here in the U.S. and around the globe. Fannie and Freddie asked more obvious questions: Why are you taking me over when I don't want or need your help?

The U.K. is blaming Paulson and Cox. Eventually, us Americans will hold these republican criminals accountable instead of looking for scapegoats based on color. There was a time when your investments and retirement accounts only knew the color green! Paulson and Cox made those accounts red by their inactions and inappropriate actions -- all based on partisanship and cronism.

Paulson and Cox need to be put in jail. The bailout money should be given directly to the tax-paying shareholders Paulson and Cox stole from to try trickling up for a change. That is about $5,000 for each of us (pennies compared to most of our losses this year)!

Funny enough, like last time CNN said that Obama came victorious of the Debate...but in fact he even lost 1 point in the last Reuters poll and he still far below 50%...

Obama has slim 2-point lead on McCain
47 percent to 45

Common Sense

Obama is the right choice in a poll in Australian newspaper "The sydney morning herald 86% of Australia want Barack Obama!

Kiwi's also want Barack Obama !

Aussie,

Exactly. The pain has trickled down and throughout the globe. When Americans cannot buy (because there is no income base at home due to outsourced jobs and imported labor), there is less of a consumer market.

Obama/Biden 08!

Australian market is down because most Australian own shares in American compaines and also when America isnt importing goods from asia... Asia isnt bying our minerals!

Asian markets are down on exports. Their financial system not so much. As Americans lose jobs, there is less need for Asian products.

Obama/Biden 08!

Won lost. Meh. I just heard stump speeches rehashed.

The only thing new I heard was some plan by McCain about buying up bad mortgages and renegotiating them. It was probably the wrong format to bring something like that up in. I don't think it went over particularly well because there just wasn't time to actually talk about it and no one really got what the implications of such a drastic measure would be.

I wonder if anyone will mention that one. I mean, it is a nearly communist plan.

James Danley

I hope your right and in the case of Mccain getting the popular vote and not the electoral college I would side with the republicans even though Im a democrat... and I hope there is enough national turnout by your base to have parity in the electoral college 269-269 then you would get palin as VP

Kaj

yea I think neither one really knows what to do about the economy ... both ignored it but Obama shouldnt pretend like he knew all along what to do he still doesnt know and he doesnt care as long as he gets to the next higher office without any questions

Nothing Obama or McCain or even the sitting US president does, will have any effect on markets, nor the fundamental ills of the economy.

What happened is that we inflated a huge balloon, which we allowed to get 10 times bigger than the real economy.

This was done by rewarding the taking on of debts. A ridiculous system.

Now banks and leaders are desperately trying to reinflate the balloon with new hot air, the shape and form of 'liquidity', ie printing dollar, euro, renminbi and yen bills.

The problem is that the debts on paper were also 10 times bigger than the entire cash reserves on this planet.

2 to 3 percent of GDP growth per year, in the past 10-12 years, was hot air. Fake.

But as long as nobody cried wolf, nobody dared say anything "Don't ask, don't tell."

We've conned ourselves for years, and now we're paying the bill.

This is not going to stop. The balloon needs to be deflated, so that we can get back to a realistic economy.

clabs

Obama won on style and mccain won on points the exact opposite of the first debate ... you obamaphiles are conducting an experiment tha will nto work and we will take our party back from you in 2012 when obama fails to get nominated again

"Senator McCain won this debate by 84% to 12% call in votes."

Good old sleazy FOX.
According to CNN

"Fifty-four percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey conducted after the debate ended said that Obama did the best job in the debate, with 30 percent saying John McCain performed better."

McCain is on a road to nowhere, the debate wasn't the game changer he hoped.

I don't dislike McCain, I must admit he has some authenticity. It's just he doesn't get that the people want leadership that offers solutions.

If he has the guts he should
- ditch Palin and the NeoCons.
- get Colin Powell and Michael Bloomberg on board

and fire Rick Davis, the campaign is turning into a disaster.

Sen. Obama demonstrated his lack of understanding of the economy.

He stated "...but one of the opportunities that was missed (following 9/11) was, when he (President Bush) spoke to the American people, he said, 'Go out and shop.' That wasn't the kind of call to service that I think the American people were looking for."

Consumer spending accounts for 70% of our economy. Had President Bush called for the American people to sacrifice following 9/11, spending would have completely stopped. That would have sent our economy into a tailspin. And THAT is exactly what al Qaeda had hoped would have been the outcome of the attacks. But instead consumer spending helped us recover from the attacks. Consumer spending and the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 turned our economy around and we had 54 consecutive months (September 2003 through December 2007) of job growth--5 million new jobs. We even had two quarters where revenue exceeded spending.

Which president produced:

1. The highest growth in the gross domestic product?
2. The highest growth in jobs?
3. The biggest increase in personal disposable income after taxes?
4. The highest growth in industrial production?
5. The highest growth in hourly wages?
6. The lowest Misery Index (inflation plus unemployment)?
7. The lowest inflation?
8. The largest reduction in the deficit?

The answers: 1. Harry Truman, 2. Bill Clinton, 3. Lyndon Johnson, 4. John F. Kennedy, 5. Johnson, 6. Truman, 7. Truman, 8. Clinton. In the Economic Sweepstakes, Democratic presidents trounce Republicans eight times out of eight!

to point out McCain's friendship with the 1960s radical David Ifshin.

In 1970, Ifshin was president of the National Student Association. That year he actually traveled to Hanoi and urged American troops to rebel against the Vietnam War. Radio Hanoi broadcast his remarks. He even made the cover of Life magazine, standing behind Jane Fonda. People called him a traitor. They said that he may have cost American lives.

And yet, McCain was the guy's pal.

A clever advertising man could point out that when Ifshin died of cancer a few years back, McCain attended the funeral and spoke of how Ifshin "always felt passionate about his country." Adding, ''I learned a lot about courage from David."

It's all true. And a campaign operative could end it there.

What it DOESN'T tell you is that Ifshin changed, becoming much more respectable in later life. (Sort of like Ayers.) And that he and McCain reconciled about Vietnam.

McCain said that their relationship proved how futile it was to look back in anger.

Unless, it turns out, you have an opportunity to use such an association, no matter how tenuous, against a political opponent.

Obama is the most liberal member of Congress(fact). His liberalism is a recorded fact, both in the Illinois and the U.S. Senate. His associations are anti-American and socialist with violent tendecies.(Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers)Sure, he is Charismatic likeable and a great actor, but wrong for America...
Facts: He sat in Jeremiah Wright's church for 20 Years..."Not God bless America, but God **** America"...
He launched His political career in the home of William Ayers, an unrepentent domestic terrorist. You decide.

It's just sad when a man of McCain's stature lowers himself to the level he has and forsakes his principles, his ethics, his morals because he can't why any other way to the white house. Shame on you John, but then, like they say, "There's no fool like an Old fool".

Personally, I felt this debate was a big waste of time.

It wasn't a true "town hall" with Brokaw picking and choosing the questions to be asked, and the public not even hearing what questions would be asked.

It would have been more fair to put the proposed questions on the internet ahead of time, and have the American public vote on what questions they would like to have answered.

This was almost a repeat of the first debate. Same questions, same answers. I certainly hope Bob Scheiffer has a new approach for the final debate.

Obama answered the questions better than McCain. So Obama won the Debate.

Senator McCain won this debate by 84% to 12% call in votes. Sounds right to me. Obama refused to answer the questions about what costs he would reduce. Paid for health care is only in a pure socialist country. The United States is NOT A SOCIALIST COUNTRY. Thank God. Obama also said he would invade Pakistan. How stupid.

The markets are just discounting an Obama victory. The markets are always looking toward the future, and that future is bleak.

Obamabots, you may have won the battle, but you've lost the war.

Asian markets down. AND MCCAIN GOT "MAULED!"

lol...steady hand on the tiller indeed...

We are soon going to realize that the only candidate that could handle the economic mess is sitting at home in New York. If you don't think so, just get her to make a major speech on how to handle the downturn and watch the world listen and react.

FOX, CNN, CBS REACTION GROUPS:
OBAMA WON

"McCaskill was stepping out of her chair at the end of an MSNBC interview, and Romney was up next. She and a staffer unplugged her various wires, and she handed Romney the earpiece the guests use to hear the host.

"I spit on this before I put it in," she said to Romney, with a sweet smile."

You stay class 0bama disciples. Funny thing is, Romney owns her disgusting self with his response:

"UPDATE: Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom emails: "You should have seen what she did to the chair."

Look at the polls. CNN debate poll Obama 53 McCain 30.

I believe McCain did a better jjob in the first debate.

Yes I like Obama but for those who are uncommited. The CNN poll has a 54 Obama 28 McCain... among Undecided.

James Scott,

Why is the $700,000 non-tax-cut tax cut so incredibly important than? $18B in Congressional pork apparently is fair, not letting $350M in tax cuts expire is somehow aggregiously unfair?

0bama, himself personally, has cost the tax payers 3x more dollars than not letting those tax cuts expire on those "CEOs".

Vanessa,
You say Obama won for one reason and one reason only. You like Obama. Those that like McCain say that he won. You people make no sense whatsoever. I can't even comprehend why you blog.

I mean serious earmarks are just a political gimmick.
The real waste and real money is spent in the Pentagon. THe Pentagon budget last year was over 800 billion dollars and that does not include the price of the Iraq war which is being funded entirely off budget by congressional resolutions and Presidential fiat.
To get worked up over a 3M projector which will pay for itself over a thousand time for all us by inspiring a generation of minds (engineers, doctors and scientist) is the type of short term thinking that has us the mess we are in right now. If you really are concerned about federal spending ask yourself why after the fall of the Soviet Union our military budgets never went down.
My tax money goes to maintaining roads in states, I bet some in Ohio, that I have never ever driven in. We are a Republic, not a clave of villages with different tribes. One nation.

Obama won hands down. Better performance then the first debate for Obama.

OBAMA WON THE DEBATE

Looks like the Asian market has as much faith in our candidates as we do. Hot air has little value.